Dad faces child abuse charges

Updated 11:23 pm, Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Daquon Gomillion, 22, arrested Monday, September 16, 2013 and charged with four counts of first-degree assault and four counts of risk of injury to a child.

Daquon Gomillion, 22, arrested Monday, September 16, 2013 and charged with four counts of first-degree assault and four counts of risk of injury to a child.

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Dad faces child abuse charges

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BRIDGEPORT -- Daquon Gomillion's family was angry.

They had come to the Golden Hill Street courthouse Tuesday to support the man police and experts have accused of perpetrating the worst case of child abuse they had ever seen -- on his 5-year-old son -- and now they were huddled in the lobby of the courthouse surrounded by news reporters.

"Get out of my face," one of them yelled, lashing a hand out at a reporter.

"The allegations here are horrific," Superior Court Judge Earl Richards earlier lamented, ordering the 22-year-old Gomillion held in lieu of $750,000 bond, $150,000 more than recommended by prosecutors.

Even if Gomillion should make that bond the judge ensured he will have no further contact with the boy, issuing a protective order on him. The boy is currently in the custody of the state Department of Children and Families.

The boy had numerous scars on both legs, his back and chest and part of one ear was missing. His lip had been split, healed over and split again, police said.

Police said the boy's mother, who has not been charged, told them Gomillion had been beating the boy regularly since he was 3, usually with a brown electrical extension cord. When the boy talked back Gomillion struck him with the back of his hand, a ring on his finger splitting the boy's lip.

Police said the mother was afraid to report the abuse. One time when she had moved away from Gomillion she told police he had broken into the apartment where she was staying and set her bed on fire.

Gomillion was arrested Monday and charged with four counts of first-degree assault and four counts of risk of injury to a child after the boy's dentist reported seeing evidence of the abuse during an examination.

"This 5-year-old boy has extensive scarring over most of his body," Leventhal said. "The number of scars are too numerous to count and the number exceeds the number that I have ever seen on any other child."

During an interview at the Center for Children and Families, the boy told investigators the abuse "hurt very bad," and he was made to apologize to Gomillion after each beating, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

When police contacted the boy's mother they said she initially told them her son had fallen off his bicycle a lot.